indianapublicmedia.org · web view1. int. npr studio - present (music: npr like chime. sfx: small...

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1. INT. NPR STUDIO - PRESENT

(MUSIC: NPR like chime. SFX: Small studio ambience and

warm radio announcer quality to the dialogue here.)

CARY ONANON:

WFIU, Bloomington Indiana. Where you don’t need to be an

expert, if you learn something new everyday.

(MUSIC: Newsbreak transition.)

CARY ONANON (CONT’D):

News at the top of the hour. I’m Cary Onanon.

DAN V PRESCOTT:

And I’m Dan V. Presc…

CARY ONANON:

And I’m Cary Onanon. In a growing effort to take our

mind off of world events, we here in the newsroom have

decided to replace the trending news bites, typical of

our daily routine, with something that has been lost in

recent years due to the demise of that great American

institution; the newspaper.

DAN V. PRESCOTT:

Yes, that’s right Cary…

CARY ONANON:

I know. And with last July’s breaking news of the

discovery of thousands of hours of sound recordings.

3

TEPE: The Bourgios Standard | Episode 1 | Michael Brainard 3

CARY ONANON (CONT’D):

On the side of the box was written, “1935-1942: The Hoosier

Vagabond, and that girl who rides with him”. From one of the

all-time great reporters of the art form, and Indiana’s

favorite son; you’re in for a treat today. I’m Cary Onanon.

With the story is the omniscient Dan V. Prescott...(he

pronounces it Press-Kot)

DAN V. PRESCOTT:

It’s Press-cuit…Thank you, Cary On-and-on.

CARY ONANON:

I’m Cary Onanon!

DAN V. PRESCOTT:

And-on.

CARY ONANON:

I am.

DAN V. PRESCOTT:

Well folks, you are in for a treat today, because you will

be the first to hear the story from the source himself…

MUSIC SEGUE:

4


1a. INT. MOTEL ROOM - 1936

(SFX: The crackle of an old wire recording is heard and

small hotel room ambience. NOTE that all of the SFX played-

back on-air from the recording should be mono and have a

vintage sound quality. Reference video:

https://youtu.be/90ihiTwJPCc?t=967)

ERNIE (DISTORT):

Where this wandering business will get us or where it will

end, I have no idea. Five years ago my boss in Washington

got tired of my pestering him about the travel idea, so he

said, “Oh, all right, go on and get out. Try it a little

while as an experiment. We’ll see how it turns out”. From

that day on he never mentioned it again.

(SFX: The recording cuts out.)

CROSS TO:

5


1b. INT. NPR STUDIO - PRESENT

(SFX: The ambience of a recording studio.)

DAN V. PRESCOTT:

That is the voice of famed WWII correspondent and newspaper

columnist Ernie Pyle.

Only one recording of Ernie Pyle’s voice was known to exist

until late last year when that grand treasure trove of wire

spools was found.

For those out-of-the-know, before the war Pyle and his wife

travelled the United States, and parts abroad, gathering

stories to be used in a newspaper column for the Scripps-

Howard news service. The task amounted to 1,000 words a day,

six days a week.

And now, thanks to these recordings, we know what that

sounds like. I can go on about it, but heck, I ought to just

stop talking right here and let ol’ Ernie get to it himself:

MUSIC SEGUE:

(MUSIC: WASHINGTON POST MARCH – THE ERNIE PYLE EXPERIMENT

MAIN TITLE THEME.)

6


(MUSIC: Main theme begins to fades out.)

1c. INT. NPR STUDIO - PRESENT

(SFX: The ambience of a recording studio fades in.)

DAN V. PRESCOTT:

Welcome to the Ernie Pyle Experiment. Episode 1. The

Bourgios Standard.

(MUSIC: Main theme finishes fading out.)

DAN V. PRESCOTT (CONT’D):

Imagine, if you will, early June of 1936. A hotel room in

northwest Iowa, Ernie and his wife, Jerry, seem to be

wrestling with the task of recording themselves…

CROSS TO:

7


2. INT. MOTEL ROOM - 1936

(SFX: The recorder clicks on. The sound of a shower is heard

in the background. Ernie fiddles with the RCA Wire Recorder,

placing it on the bed as he fiddles with its dials. NOTE:

The scene should start with the mono vintage wire recording

SFX then slowly cross fade into a full stereo mix.)

ERNIE:

Well, alright then Mr. R... C... A... Wire Recorder. Lets

you and me get better acquainted. You and your fancy knobs

and chrome grill.

(SFX: Ernie adjusts the dials as the shower turns off.)

ERNIE (CONT’D):

Anyway, this whole thing lacks perspective. No, sir - we

still aren’t completely on-board with this, by the way – not

by a long-shot...

(SFX: Full stereo mix should be in effect by this time.

Jerry enters from the bathroom, drying her hair with a

towel. NOTE we may have to add in some time here to have

Jerry cross from the bathroom into the main room.)

JERRY:

It isn’t like it was a request.

8


ERNIE:

Well, did they give Heywood Broun one of these wire voice-

boxes to lug with him wherever he goes?

JERRY (LAUGHING):

Really?

ERNIE:

I doubt it. Anyway, I have a chip on my shoulder, so you

know. But...listen, we have taken it out some. You don’t

have to believe me.

JERRY:

Oh, just because you say something doesn’t mean it magically

comes true.

ERNIE:

But when you make a promise about something…

JERRY:

…you shouldn’t lie.

ERNIE:

You calling me a liar?

JERRY:

Not yet.

9


ERNIE:

Not yet? What am I about to lie about then?

JERRY:

Oh, that you’ve been using the recorder on people.

ERNIE:

I have used it.

JERRY:

They gave us that thing well over a year ago and you haven’t

changed the wire on it yet.

ERNIE:

I have. Look, they last a long time. What is that?

(SFX: Ernie picks up the wire cartridge.)

ERNIE (CONT’D):

24? 28-guage wire? One of these spools lasts for an hour.

JERRY:

You’re not even halfway through yet!

ERNIE:

Yeah…yeah…look…maybe three quarters of the way through.

JERRY:

Oh, well haven’t you been busy?

10


ERNIE:

Well, there’s a lot more in there. Look. We are heading

home, so…Back at the office they’re going to want to hear

some stuff. I promised I’d use the cursed thing, so we are

going open it up a bit more in the coming days. And…

JERRY:

Fine. But really what’s on there is you complaining anyway…

ERNIE:

All the more reason to fill up these spools –

(SFX: Ernie places the spool down on the dresser.)

ERNIE (CONT’D):

— so I won’t get yelled at. So, what I’m trying to get

around to saying is to explain what we just recorded

yesterday. That’s what is just before this, what I’m saying

now, so…

JERRY:

Well, you should’ve said this before that.

ERNIE:

This before what?

JERRY:

Before what’s on there yesterday.

11


ERNIE:

Well, how do you do that?

JERRY:

Ah, do it first, I guess.

ERNIE:

Well, I’m here now…

JERRY:

Well, something to think about, that’s all. Just think about

it.

ERNIE:

Anyway, yesterday, somewhere, we picked up a traveller. He

was headed to someplace, and had to get there quick. He had

a little guitar…

CROSS TO:

12


(EXTERIOR: country road with crickets chirping as a Model A

Ford rattles past our ears…)

CROSS TO:

3. INT. MODEL A FORD - DAY

(SFX: The wind is heard blowing through the trees, a gentle

stream is heard, along with the sound of the Model A Ford

motor idling in the distance.)

WILLY:

We ready?

(SFX: Ernie fiddles with the wire recorder.)

ERNIE:

The machine’s running.

JERRY:

Wait!

(SFX: Jerry gets up from the picnic blanket and runs from

the grass across the gravel road to the car.)

JERRY (CONT’D):

Let me turn off the engine.

(SFX: The Model A motor cuts off. Jerry rejoins them

plopping on the ground.)

JERRY (CONT’D):

Russell McGee, 02/07/20,

Ryan, this will be a section where we will need room to play as the timing is not strictly set and until we have the transition of the car traveling into this scene we won’t know the exact timing.

13


Ready!

WILLY:

Ok. This is a true story, I heard it with my own eyes...

(W/T: Jerry and Ernie react to the turn of phrase.)

(MUSIC: Willy plays the ukulele and sings.)

WILLY:

NOW THE CCC YOU MIGHT AGREE

PUTS MEN BACK TO WORK BY FEDERAL DECREE

MAKING ROADS, AND PARKS, AND TRAILS, AND DAMS

NOW, ROOSEVELT’S MORE POPULAR THAN ABRAHAM...

Lincoln, that’s Abe Lincoln, keep up now.

FEELS GOOD FOR FOLKS TO BE BUSY AS BUMBLEBEES

WELL, THE FORESTRY DIVISION CAME TO TOWN

WITH TWO FLATBEDS FULL OF PINE TREES, THEY STARTED LOOKING

AROUND

WE CAN PLANT THEM HERE, WE CAN PLANT THEM THERE

AND WITHOUT LOOKING FOR A SPOT THAT WAS BARE

THEY OPTED FOR COURTHOUSE-SQUARE AND CLEARED THE GROUND


Jessie and Ryan, I spoke with Mike already as there is a different take that we need to use here to get the movement of Jerry back and forth from the car prior to the scene starting regards the stereo perspective.

14


WILLY (CONT’D):

THE OLD TREES THAT WERE THERE THEY TURNED TO STUMPS

MOVED ALL OF THEM OUT AND OVER TO THE DUMP

SO THEY PLANTED THEM THERE AND THEY PLANTED THEM HERE

IN THE SAME OLD HOLES THE OLD TREES SHARED

IT’S JUST AS WRONG AS PUTTING LIPSTICK ON YOUR RUMP

(W/T: They all share a laugh.)

WILLY (CONT’D):

WELL I LIKE NEW BRIDGES, ROADS, CURBS AND DITCHES

I’M FINE WITH OUR TAX DOLLARS IRONING OUT THE GLITCHES

But who the heck is in charge of hiring the guy that gives

the heave-ho to a bunch of fine, fully-grown shade-trees,

that were already doing the job they were tasked with a full

seventy years ago when they were planted? The idea is, you

can legislate a WPA, right?

JERRY:

Right.

ERNIE:

But, you can’t legislate a common sense administration?

ERNIE:

15


A... CSA?

JERRY:

The last CSA didn’t do too well.

WILLY:

That’s true. For this administration we’d need three new

letters. What’s another word for ‘common’?

JERRY:

Bourgeois.

ERNIE:

Bourgios. That’s good.

WILLY:

And another word for ‘sense’?

JERRY:

Hmmmm. Well, ‘Sense’ is sense. It is the standard bearer of

it’s own meaning and clarifies itself.

(She factors it out, talking to herself, like a math

equation. A calculus that only she knows.)

JERRY (CONT’D):

Let’s see…In this case the word ‘standard’ itself could be

used. Kind of a sideways glance, playing on the definition

of ‘bourgeois’ itself. There is a direct line between

‘bourgeois’ and ‘standard’…see, they share a definition… But

16


broken down to the sum it’s parts could be…: ‘bourgeois

standard’; the standard being the standard of sensibility,

JERRY (CONT’D):

and then you’d have the same meaning; ‘Common sense’. So...

Bourgeois Standard.

(LONG BEAT, just the tress and the stream. Then;)

WILLY:

Wow. Bourgeios standard.

ERNIE:

I like it.

JERRY:

The B.S. Administration.

(W/T: They all laugh. Willy plays a new song.)

WILLY:

NOW COMMON SENSE IS COMMON SENSE

THOUGH SOME IGNORE THIS AS PRETENSE

AND OL’ THOMAS PAINE THIS LAND MEANDERED

HOISTING THE COLORS OF THE BOURGEIOS STANDARD

See what I did there? Standard? Flag?

JERRY:

17


A Standard could also be a song...

WILLY:

...AND THE SONG IS SUNG AT THEIR EXPENSE

WE’LL VOTE THEM OUT IN OUR DEFENSE

UNTIL WE GET THE ONES WITH COMMON SENSE

THAT LEAD THE FOLK WITH COMMON SENSE

THE WORLD RIGHT NOW DON’T MAKE NO SENSE

(BEAT.)

JERRY:

Well, aren’t you the dissenter.

WILLY:

Only when I sing. It’s funny, I’m not a complainer. I

despise complainers. You know, I listen to those words I

just made up there and if I heard them from someone else I’d

say to him, “Well, you step in there if you think you can do

better”. And, I don’t think I can. But, I guess complaining,

if you don’t feel you have any power to change anything,

feels like the most effective tool the shed. I don’t know. I

voted for Roosevelt, that doesn’t mean I don’t get to

complain, does it? For goodness sake,

18


…those CCC boys took out a stand of trees from the ground,

just to plant the trees they had on their truck so they

could get out of there and go drink beer. If that don’t

WILLY (CONT’D):

make a follower of the bourgeois-standard angry, I don’t

know what. Anyway, I only dissent when I’m making songs up,

and what-not.

JERRY:

That’s what standard bourgeois do.

(W/T: They laugh.)

WILLY:

So I’m bourgeois now I guess. I guess that’s official.

JERRY:

Aren’t we all?

(SFX: Jerry pours herself a drink.)

JERRY (CONT’D):

Drink?

WILLY:

Drink!

(SFX: Jerry pours Willy a drink.)

19


ERNIE:

Okay.

CROSS TO:

4. INT. MOTEL ROOM - LATER

(SFX: Small hotel room ambience.)

(W/T: They laugh.)

(SFX: Ernie picks up the recorder from the bed, walks across

the carpeted room, and moves it on top of the dresser. Over

this.)

ERNIE:

Anyway, maybe there is a use for this thing. But, it does

get me thinking that if folks ever do listen to these wires

they might see I’ve been fibbing in my column.

(SFX: Ernie stops walking.)

JERRY:

Only if you admit to it.

(SFX: Ernie turns toward Jerry. Over this.)

ERNIE:

Thing is, I don’t even know I’m doing it, until I go back

and listen to what actually happened. It really makes you

20


think how much our imagination immediately begins filling in

for the facts.

(SFX: Jerry picks up a comb and beings to brush her hair.)

JERRY:

Maybe it’ll keep you honest.

ERNIE:

It’ll keep me boring. That’s what I’m afraid of.

(SFX: Ernie picks up a wire cartridge.)

ERNIE (CONT’D):

Did I play for you that little girl in Kallispell?

JERRY:

No.

ERNIE:

Well, this is what I mean. I like what we talked about, what

she said. But what if I want to write about something not on

the wire?

JERRY:Write what you want.

(SFX: Jerry continues to brush her hair.)

JERRY (CONT’D):

Nobody will hear it, anyway.

21


ERNIE:

Yeah. Lee Miller will hear it. Then it will give him an

excuse to get in there and start rewriting my stuff.

JERRY:

That just get’s my goat.

(SFX: Jerry slams her comb down on the nightstand.)

JERRY (CONT’D):

Who does he think he is, anyway? You’d be the damn editor of

that rag if you wanted it.

(SFX: Jerry gets up from the bed and joins Ernie by the

dresser. Wrapping her arms around him from behind in an

embrace. Over this...)

ERNIE:

I should, right?

JERRY:

Mmm hmmm.

ERNIE:

He’s not that bad.

JERRY:

He is that bad, and if your stuff needs anything you give it

to me first…or I’ll quit.

22


(SFX: Jerry lets go of Ernie and steps back playfully.)

ERNIE:

You will?

(SFX: Jerry assumes boxing stances, her feet dancing. Over

this…)

JERRY:

Just watch me. And if I have to fight that pimple-nosed

pinchfist, I will.

ERNIE:

OK.

(SFX: Jerry takes Ernie in her hands and tries to pull him

from the recorder. Over this.)

JERRY:

Let’s go get a drink, Ern.

ERNIE:

Let me play this wire.

(SFX: Ernie picks up the wire cartridge.)

ERNIE (CONT’D):

The one with the little red-headed girl.

JERRY:

23


I’m thirsty.

ERNIE:

You just said if my writing needs anything to give it to you

first.

(SFX: Ernie pulls away from Jerry.)

JERRY:

Oh. Alright. That’s what we’re doing? Go ahead. What are we

thinking about here?

(SFX: Jerry crosses away from Ernie and flops on the bed.)

ERNIE:

Memory. Memory itself. Not sure it’s as accurate as I think

it is.

JERRY:

What do you remember about it?

(SFX: Ernie takes a few steps toward Jerry.)

ERNIE:

I remember a little girl, about 10 years old, sitting with

her baby brother in the shade, watching her grandmother

washing clothes in Flathead Lake. There was nothing that

girl couldn’t see.

CROSS TO:

24


5. EXT. LAKESIDE - DAY

(SFX: Warm summer day, ducks are heard on the lake in the

distance.)

(W/T: A baby coos as an old woman playfully tickles him.

Jerry amuses herself at the shore. Jerry W/T: Ernie I need

another drinkie winkie! Maybe I can put a boat in my bottle.

They’re too big! They don’t look so big through my bottle.)

JUDY:

Is that your wife?

ERNIE:

Yes. That’s my wife.

JUDY:

Is she drunk?

ERNIE:

Yes.

25


(Jerry W/T: Ernie look at me! Ernie, look! Look! I’m toeing

the line, the water line!”)

JUDY:

What does she want?

ERNIE:

What does she want?

JUDY:

Yes.

ERNIE:

Hmmm…Well, you’re an insightful little human, aren’t you?

JUDY:

What are you doing out here?

ERNIE:

Well…now what is your name?

JUDY:

Judy.

(SFX: Baby cooing.)

This is Bob.

ERNIE:

Judy, I’m Ernie. Hi Bob.

26


JUDY:

He says hi.

ERNIE:

Does he, now? Well, Judy I’m a newspaper writer. They call

me a columnist. I write six stories a week for the Scripps-

Howard chain.

JUDY:

I never met one of you. That’s why you’re here?

ERNIE:

I’m always looking for my next story.

(Jerry W/T: WOO!! The water feels great! Come on Ernie, come

play with me!)

JUDY:

Why are you ignoring her?

ERNIE:

Who?

JUDY:

Your wife.

ERNIE:

You’re right-full of questions, aren’t you?

27


JUDY:

So?

(Jerry W/T: Come on! COME on! Don’t be a wet blanket!)

ERNIE:

When you get married, you might understand.

JUDY:

I’ve never seen anyone drunk in the daylight.

ERNIE:

Well, you ought to try it then.

(Grandmother W/T: Harrumphs at Ernie.)

JUDY:

You’re funny.

ERNIE:

You know I’m kidding, then?

JUDY:

Yes.

ERNIE:

Good.

28


(Jerry W/T: ERNIE! Ernie, look at me! I’m dancing on the

dock!)

JUDY:

You think she’s going to fall in the lake?

ERNIE:

I hope so.

JUDY (LAUGHING):

Oh, you do not.

ERNIE:

No, I don’t.

JUDY:

You like her?

ERNIE:

Do I like her?

JUDY:

Why are you repeating everything I say?!

ERNIE:

It’s just…I need a little air, here. Do I like her?

JUDY:

29


Do you?

ERNIE:

Yes. I love her.

JUDY:

Why?

ERNIE:

Wh…OK, look. I’m the one with the newspaper column. Let me

ask the questions.

JUDY:

When I grow up I’m not going to let anybody tell me what to

do.

ERNIE:

Oh?

JUDY:

I’ll be doing the telling. I’m not living anybody else’s

life but my own.

ERNIE:

Well…sure…

JUDY:

30


And I sure as heck won’t let anything get in my way.

(SFX: A splash is heard in the distance.)

JUDY (LAUGHING):

You’re wife fell in the lake.

(Jerry W/T: (laughing) Ernie! Help, Ernie! I’m all wet!

(SFX: Ernie runs to Jerry’s rescue. Another splash is her

and Judy giggling.)

CROSS TO:



JERRY:

Well, that little brat!

(SFX: Jerry grabs the wire cylinder from Ernie and crosses

the room.)

ERNIE:

Sure was cute.

JERRY:

You wanted me to hear that, did you?

ERNIE:

Why not?

JERRY:

31


This doesn’t have anything to do with what your memory is.

You just want to laugh at me!

(SFX: Jerry throws the wire cylinder in the trash.)

ERNIE:

No, I don’t.

(SFX: Ernie crosses to Jerry trying to comfort her.)

JERRY:

Oh, you do too.

ERNIE:

No, I want you to laugh at you.

JERRY:

Go ahead, write that story. I’ll just tell everyone you

pushed me in.

(SFX: Ernie pulls the wire cylinder from the trash can. Over

this.)

ERNIE:

They can hear for themselves that isn’t true.

(SFX: Jerry begins to pace the room.)

JERRY:

True? What does that mean? I’ll tell them you pushed me with

a long stick, or something!

32


ERNIE:

Oh, boy.

JERRY:

See? Maybe everything you hear isn’t what you hear.

ERNIE:

That’s what I mean!

(SFX: Ernie crosses to Jerry.)

JERRY:

Better make sure your notes are backing up the lies this

machine is telling.

ERNIE:

Guess we’ll have to let it lie. I am opposed to note-taking

in all its forms.

JERRY:

Really? Let’s see about that…Where did we just come from?

ERNIE:

Huh? You think I don’t know.

JERRY:

I know you don’t.

33


ERNIE:

We were in South Dakota last night.

JERRY:

You don’t remember Minnesota, already.

ERNIE:

I mean Minnesota,..Oh, big deal.

JERRY:

And where are we now?

ERNIE:

Some town with a lake in it. North east Iowa. Let me see...

(SFX: Ernie pulls out notebook.)

JERRY:

What’s that? What’s that in your hand?

ERNIE:

My notebook.

JERRY:

So you do take notes...

ERNIE:

You know I do. I have to get folks names right.

34


(SFX: Ernie flips through the pages. Over this...)

ERNIE (CONT’D):

Names and places. This is Spirit Lake, Iowa.

JERRY:

Yep. Shame on you, First, you push me in with a big stick,

and now you’re trying to lie to these people.

ERNIE:

What people?

JERRY:

Whoever is listening to this. Where are we headed next,

anyway?

ERNIE:

I told you we’re going home.

JERRY:

And where is that?

ERNIE:

Dana, Indiana.

JERRY:

Liar! I knew it! We agreed we were going home.

35


ERNIE:

Dana is home...to some people.

JERRY:

Don’t play this game with me, Ern.

ERNIE:

It is.

JERRY:

I knew it when you didn’t want to go through Chicago you

were going to steer us toward your folks.

ERNIE:

It will only be for a few days, then we can go home.

JERRY:

And you haven’t forgotten where that is?

ERNIE:

Well, let me check my notes...

(SFX: Ernie jokingly begins flipping through his notebook.)

JERRY:

How do I know if you haven’t bought us a house somewhere and

didn’t tell me about it?

36


(SFX: Ernie puts away his notebook and pulls Jerry toward

him.)

ERNIE:

Well, that’s a good idea.

(SFX: They kiss.)

JERRY:

Oh, Alright, A few days in Dana with your folks and then

straight home to Washington. For real!

ERNIE (LAUGHING):

Well, if I don’t forget.

(SFX: Ernie suddenly breaks away and move to his typewriter.

Sits down then begins typing.)

MUSIC SEGUE:


We need this as a passage of time.


NOTE: Again this may effect timing as he stops laughing and moves to start writing.


NOTE: We will need a few more beats here for the kiss before Jerry’s line. I say this so Ryan knows that this may add some time here.

37




DAN V. PRESCOTT (V.O.):

Later that night.

(SFX: Ernie finishes typing and pulls the page from the

typewriter.)

ERNIE:

You want to hear this?

(SFX: Jerry sits up on the bed. Over this.)

JERRY:

Go ahead.

38


(SFX: Paper crinkles as he moves it to read.)

ERNIE:

Travel, they say, is educational. And so we have found it in

our first five years of constant wandering. Why, if I had

been sitting at a desk instead of busting around, I never

would have learned that Pocahontas was buried in England, or

that most laundries insist on putting starch in white pants,

and I’m sure I never would have gotten it into my head where

Patagonia is. Neither would I have known where the Red River

is, but I now know of so many Red Rivers that I don’t know

which one the song was written about. And if I had been

behind a desk, I never would have

ERNIE (CONT’D):

ridden with a long unseen-cousin dragging redwood logs down

out of the California mountains with a caterpillar. There is

one thing, however, that travel has not taught me: what

makes the noise come out of a radio.

We have travelled by practically all forms of locomotion,

including piggyback. We have been at least three times into

every state in the Union. We have not spent a Christmas in a

home in four years. I spent one Fourth Of July in hip boots,

sheepskin coat, mittens, and stocking cap. And we’ve

celebrated New Year’s three times in shirt sleeves. Travel

is so confusing. And speak of confusion, my most confused

moment was at the airport in Mexico City. The ladies’ and


NOTE: Jessie and Ryan, play with this…we might want a slight underscore here and subtle SFX of the things and places he is describing.)

39


men’s retiring rooms there were labeled “Senoras” and

“Senores”. That’s an awful lot alike, so I walked smack into

the ladies room. No harm done, however, and I walked right

out again. Then I took my bearings, consulted my Spanish

dictionary, lit a cigarette for nonchalance, and this time

walked confidently and correctly into the men’s department.

And I’ll be damned if there weren’t two old ladies in there!

Americans too.

The farthest I’ve driven in one day is 570 miles—from a

ranch in the center of Arizona clear into Los Angeles. I’ll

never do that again.

A fellow gets awfully sleepy driving, especially right after

lunch on a hot day. Several times I have had to stop

ERNIE (CONT’D):

and walk up and down the road to wake up. Once we stopped on

the desert for me to take a little nap. I have never heard

such intense quiet. That Girl who rides with me was reading

a newspaper. This sounds incredible, but the slight rustling

of her paper made so much noise in the desert stillness that

I couldn’t go to sleep, sleepy as I was. I never said

anything to her about it.

I am probably the most solvent person in America (and I

don’t mean too solvent) who literally has no home, no place

to hang his hat, no base to go back to and start away from.

The question most frequently asked of us is “Aren’t you

getting awfully sick of travelling by now”? The answer is an

40


honest no, though it isn’t impossible some of these days we

might come to hate the impermanency of travel. I’ve tried to

figure out myself why we haven’t tired of it. And my

conclusion is that our travel is a means of escape. We don’t

have to stay and face anything out. If we don’t like a

place, we can move on. If something happens that isn’t

pleasant, we can leave and settle it later by letter, or

just let it go forever. Stability cloaks you with a thousand

little personal responsibilities, and we have been able to

flee from them.

But just as important with us, I suspect, is the fact we

can’t stay long even in the places we love. There is no

opportunity for lingering disillusionment. I remember that

once, years ago, we loved Arizona so much that when we

ERNIE (CONT’D):

crossed the Colorado river for the last time we could hardly

talk for the lumps in our throats.

(SFX: we should move from the stereo mix slowly cross-fading

back into the mono sounds of the vintage wire recording.)

ERNIE (D) (CONT’D):

We left Hawaii with broken hearts. We can hardly speak of

the people of Sun Valley, Idaho, without bubbling over. We

hardly dare go to Albuquerque, we hate so to leave. And we

still love all those places because we always had to leave

before the sweet taste could turn to vinegar. And also

before they could find out about us, and kick us out.

41


(SFX: The recording cuts out.)

MUSIC SEGUE:

7a. INT. NPR STUDIO - PRESENT

(MUSIC: Continues to play under this.)

(SFX: Small studio ambience and warm radio announcer quality

to the dialogue here.)

DAN V. PRESCOTT:

Next time on The Ernie Pyle Experiment:

CROSS TO:

42


7b. MONTAGE

A preview cuts and sound bites from episode 2.

CROSS TO:

43


7c. INT. NPR STUDIO - PRESENT


(SFX: Small studio ambience.)

DAN V. PRESCOTT:

See you next week, folks. Until then, I’m Dan V. Prescott

reminding you that the good road will never end, if you can

only stay on it.

FADE TO:

(MUSIC: “THE WASHINGTON POST MARCH”.)

CREDIT ROLL

44



CARY ONANON:

WFIU, Bloomington, Indiana. I’m Cary Onanon (on-and- on)…I

mean, I’m Cary Onanon (on-and-on)…DAMMIT! I’m Cary Onanon

(O-nan-on)!

FADE MUSIC


This should roughly time out to about a minute and a half. That may even be long enough for the final Carry lines. Ryan until we have the credits, this is something that we will need to be able to adjust. ALSO Ryan, I will need to know all crew names and what role they played in the production from your end. Your assistants and musicians etc.

indianapublicmedia.org · web view1. int. npr studio - present (music: npr like chime. sfx: small...

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